Chasing Secrets

Concerned with colony collapse syndrome in honey bees worldwide, scientists, farmers and tech companies teamed up in Australia to create a micro-sensor that collects data on the bee's environment.

The research group, Beneath the Waves, is cultivating cross-sector collaborations with nonprofits, scientists, and individual philanthropists in order to better study the movements and patterns of sharks in the Bahamas. What has typically been a challenging task has been made possible through the use of acoustic tags, which can provide researchers insight into ocean ecosystems and thus conservation. Such initiatives are part of a larger trend of bringing together private donors, nonprofits, and ocean scientists to bolster marine science and conservation efforts.

As the Mexican wolf population neared extinction, the Arizona Game & Fish Department and the Endangered Wolf Center have been placing pups born in captivity in wild dens. This effort, known as cross-fostering, has been successful in not only increasing the number of wolves in the Southwest, but also improving the survival skills of cross-fostered wolves. While the Mexican wolf population hasn’t completely rebounded, more people are understanding the importance that the species has on the ecosystem.

Arizona’s Game & Fish Department is taking a proactive approach to chronic wasting disease (CWD), a neurodegenerative disease found in deer, elk, and moose. The department works with hunters during hunting season to test dead deer for the disease, which has yet to spread to Arizona. It has also banned deer farms and the transportation of whole deer carcasses into Arizona from other states, citing that it’s easier to keep CWD out than control it once it’s inside state lines.

Bsal is a fungal pathogen that causes a deadly disease in salamanders. Experts from Mexico, Canada, and the United States came together to create the volunteer-based North American Bsal Task Force to prevent it from spreading further and prepare a plan of action for when the pathogen reaches the continent.

The Minnesota-based company Advanced Telemetry Systems develops trackers specifically designed for hundreds of different animals. These devices allow researchers to do things like find invasive species, learn more about critically endangered species, or better understand population declines.

Citizen scientists in India are using apps like iNaturalist to contribute to scientific research on biodiversity. They help fills gaps in data by adding photos of plants and animals to the app for researchers to assess.

Volunteers at the Owl Moon Raptor Center in Maryland rehabilitate injured birds by treating their injuries and exercising them. Healed birds are released back into the wild.

In Montana, landowners, hunters, outfitters, and biologists created the Devil’s Kitchen Working Group to facilitate conversations about elk management which led to a successful management framework that has been relatively unchanged for years.

A biologist studies bear dens in the forests of British Columbia, Canada, to create artificial alternatives as forestry practices make suitable dens rarer.